


those who prove worthy

by Fives (janfives90)



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: F/F, Mummy AU, past lives au, warnings: violence; spooky ghost and mummy things, with a touch of uncharted au in there too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 03:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20846792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janfives90/pseuds/Fives
Summary: The year is 1924. A small adventuring party sets out to find a mythic Egyptian tomb.The year is 2024. A treasure hunter and a reporter set out to solve the mystery of a lost expedition - while a curse set in motion long before their birth threatens to lead them to the same fate.





	1. Chapter 1

** 1924 **

The Librarian sits at a table in a bar in London, staring down at the map in front of her.

“If you look long enough, will it grow an X to mark something that will make us money?” her Brother asks as he drops into the chair across from her.

“I’m not looking for treasure.”

“Sure. I’m not, either. I’m looking for history that can make us rich.”

The Librarian sighs.

There’s a loud laugh from the bar, and the Librarian looks up to see a young soldier slap his hands down on the counter next to a woman nursing a glass of whiskey. “Hey, look who it is! Corporal Crazy! Did you find a tomb in that glass?” He snickers. “Maybe the spirits are all in your head after all.”

“Haven’t heard any of those before,” the woman says dryly, taking a sip of her drink.

The soldier snaps his fingers at the bartender. “Do you think it’s a good idea to serve this lady? She’s nuts. You know who she is, right? Fool thinks she found a mythic Egyptian tomb.”

The bartender gives him an unimpressed look. “Private, the corporal here outranks you, and she’s seen more combat than you probably ever will. She deserves your respect whether you believe her or not.”

“I doubt that.” The soldier leans in and sneers. “You’ve probably never seen anything dangerous in your life. You’re just a coward too scared to fight in a real battle.”

The Corporal sets her drink down slowly, the glass clinking hard on the counter.

She turns, faster than the Librarian though likely, and punches the private in the jaw.

“Shit,” the Brother mutters, jumping to his feet and backing out of the way as the two soldiers start fighting.

A police officer sitting at a nearby table stands up and pulls them apart. He grabs the Corporal’s arm. “I think you’ve had enough liquor for one day. It’s time to leave.”

The Librarian watches the Corporal be escorted out of the bar. “Her.”

“What?” The Brother frowns. “What are you on about?”

“I want to know exactly what kind of tombs she thinks she saw.”

“Oh. Great. You want to follow the crazy person to a bunch of tombs that don’t exist.”

The Librarian claps a hand on his shoulder. “Where’s your sense of adventure?” She glances at the private, straightening his uniform and watching the Corporal be escorted out with a smug look on his face. “Besides. I think somebody should listen to her, don’t you think?”

The Brother groans. “Why do I follow you?”

“Because you love me.”

“I question my commitment to that every day,” he mutters as he sets money for their drinks down on the table and follows her out of the bar.

* * *

The Corporal looks up as a woman leans against the bars of her cell. “Are they letting me out of here?”

“They’re going to. You’re not being charged with assault, and I paid your fine.”

“Now why would you do that?” The Corporal leans on the other side of the bars.

“I heard what that soldier said in that bar. Something about a mythic tomb?”

The Corporal’s smile falters. She reaches through the bars and taps her fingers against the woman’s cheek, a bit surprised when she doesn’t even flinch. “That’s a pretty little accent. There aren’t enough drunk fools in Ireland for you to bother?”

The woman laughs. “There’s plenty, but as far as I know, none of them have possibly seen what you’ve possibly seen.”

She puts her hands back on the bars. “You hear rumor and you pay someone’s fine off? What exactly are you? Reporter? Treasure hunter? Lunatic?”

“Librarian, actually.”

“Oh, so you’re all of the above.”

“You’re still punchy, aren’t you?” The Librarian runs a hand through her hair. “I’m not saying that I believe it, necessarily. But I’d like to hear what you have to say. I want to know your story, not a rumor spit out in derision by some private with too much time on his hands. And if the story feels true, I’d like to try to see this tomb myself.”

The Corporal pauses. “You really want to listen to me?”

“I really do.”

“Well then. I guess you’d better get me out of here.” The Corporal holds her hand out. “It’s a deal. _Librarian.”_

She snorts and shakes the Corporal’s hand. “Deal. _Corporal.”_

* * *

** 2024 **

Alyssa Greene sits on the back of a small boat, taking pictures of the island next to her and recording notes with the small recorder she has set on an upside-down bucket. “So, Mr. Glickman, tell me, what sort of artifacts have you worked with in your life?”

The man sitting at the boat’s controls – Barry Glickman – glances over his shoulder at her. “It’s varied. I’ve found Revolutionary items, Greek items, World War II items, Chinese items… Really, I try to keep myself as active as I can.”

“Has Ms. Nolan worked with you for every job?”

“She’s worked with me since she was a kid. Not _every_ job I’ve ever done, but enough.” Barry laughs. “And just so you know, she’ll be pissed if she hears you call her ‘Ms. Nolan’. How many times does she need to tell you to call her ‘Emma’? For that matter, how many times do I need to tell you to call me ‘Barry’? There’s no need to be so formal.”

“I’m working. It’s the right thing to be formal.”

He scoffs. “Sure. You’re in a boat in the Mediterranean Sea and there’s _nothing_ that can convince you to relax.”

Alyssa sighs and sets her camera down. “You’re awfully cavalier about something you consider a job, aren’t you?”

Barry shrugs and eats a few Cheetos. “It spares me the heart attack that Emma tries to give me on a regular basis.”

The radio sitting on the seat next to him crackles to life. _“Barry, start the boat! Start the boat, Barry!”_

“See what I mean? Regular attempts at heart attacks.” Barry brings the boat to life and gets to his feet, walking past Alyssa to start untying the boat from the dock. “If you don’t want to lose that fancy equipment of yours, you should secure it.”

“Wait, you’re not leaving, are you? Emma’s not back yet.”

“She will be,” he replies calmly.

Alyssa blinks. “But-”

There’s a commotion that sounds far too much like gunfire, and Emma Nolan bursts out of the trees just beyond the beach, hesitating only long enough to get her bearings before she sprints towards the boat.

“Gotta go!” she yells as she jumps from the dock and lands hard in the boat at the exact moment that Barry finishes untying the last rope.

“Already on it,” he says, getting into his seat and pushing the boat forward in the water.

“What in the hell-” Alyssa is cut off as Emma suddenly grabs her and pushes her down flat on the floor of the boat, a bullet flying over their heads.

“Barry, you’re slacking,” Emma complains.

He ducks before he says, “Oh, shut up, kid.”

She rolls onto her back, staying down and out of sight. “I got it, though,” she says, shaking the small box in her hand.

Alyssa stares at her for a moment before leaning up slowly, watching a cluster of men with guns swam onto the beach. “What… What the _fuck_ is going on?”

Emma grins at her and pats the box. “Artifact recovery.”

“From people with guns who start shooting at you?”

“They didn’t agree with my price suggestion, so I offered a new, lower one.” Emma adjusts the sleeves of her Henley and sits up. “They don’t know the true value of this anyway.”

Alyssa pales. “You _stole_ it?”

“I _recovered_ it. Artifact… _recovery.”_

“Oh my God you’re serious.”

“Of course I am,” Emma says brightly. She checks their distance from the beach before she stands up and pats Barry on the shoulder. “Hey, you’re better in your old age than I thought you were.”

“I’m not _that_ old,” he grumbles.

“You’re old enough to be my father.”

“That’s not as old as you think it is, jackass.”

Emma holds out her hand and helps Alyssa to her feet. “Once we’re further away, we’ll make sure we really did get what we came here for. I don’t want to open this box when there’s such a big risk of it getting wet.”

“Wait a minute. Just wait a minute. Are you… You’re _thieves?”_

“No,” Emma and Barry say simultaneously.

Emma pauses. “Well. I guess it depends on the day.”

“No,” Barry insists. “We’re artifact recovery specialists. Who sometimes have to steal them to recover them.”

Emma snaps her fingers. “There. That one.”

Alyssa stares at them as she slowly picks up her recorder and holds it to her mouth. “Internal Note: For future articles, do better vetting of subject materials.”

“Now you’re just being dramatic.”

Alyssa shakes her head, staring at Emma. “No. No, I really don’t think I am.”

* * *

The sun has set and the moon is full as Alyssa sits out on the boat, staring up at the sky. Emma wanders over and sits next to her, holding the box.

“I’m sorry. The adrenaline from earlier made me so excited that I didn’t even consider that you might be afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of, you know.”

Alyssa laughs. “Nothing to be afraid of? You almost got us all shot. You obtained an artifact by stealing it from God knows who. And you and Mr. Glickman act so casual about all of this, like it’s _normal.”_

Emma shrugs. “It _is_ normal for us. Look, Ms. Greene, I won’t lie to you. What Barry and I did when I was a child was a lot closer to regular stealing than I’m sure you’d be entirely comfortable with. But we really are trying to put that behind us, at least for the most part. We’re just trying to find what’s out there, and if someone has something that they really shouldn’t, we…” She laughs. “Well, we _recover_ it.”

“You’re a piece of work,” Alyssa says with a small laugh. “That’s insane, you know that?”

“Maybe. It’s fun, though. Isn’t it?”

“I haven’t decided yet. It might just be terrifying.”

“That’s fair.” Emma pauses. “If you want, I can have Barry drop you off at the next port. You don’t need to keep going with us.”

Alyssa hesitates. “I… Where are you going?”

Emma smiles as if she can sense the curiosity. “That depends on what’s in here.” She opens the box carefully, revealing an old notebook that looks weathered and battered.

“What is it?” Alyssa asks, scooting closer until her shoulder is touching Emma’s.

“A notebook.”

Alyssa rolls her eyes. “I can see that, asshole.”

Emma grins and cautiously removes it from the box, holding it delicately in her hand as she judges how well it can hold up to touch. “It’s a log from a journey in 1924. An adventuring party that went to search for an Egyptian tomb that no one thought existed. Most of that party didn’t return, and the few who did had no memory of what happened to the others.”

Alyssa shivers and unconsciously pushes further against Emma’s side. “That’s… disturbing. Why do you want it?”

“Because I want to find the tomb.”

She looks up at Emma sharply. “What?”

“All I’ve ever done is chase artifacts other people found and other people stole. I’d like to find some of my own.” Emma taps her fingers against the cover of the notebook. “And if I can solve another artifact’s mystery while I’m at it? All the better.”

“I have to say,” Alyssa admits after a long moment. “The enthusiasm is intriguing.”

Emma smiles. “But?”

“But I’m not sure I’m cut out for that kind of adventure.”

“Not everyone is.” Emma winks. “But you might surprise yourself, Ms. Greene.”

Alyssa blushes and looks down. “Can, uhm… Can I see the book?”

“Sure,” Emma says softly.

She holds the notebook out, and Alyssa reaches out and takes it.

The moment both of them are touching the notebook at the same time, the sky goes pitch black, thick clouds covering the moon. The sea goes completely still despite a cold, eerie wind that suddenly rushes past them. Their mouths go dry, like they’re filling with sand, and they’re thrown, hard, away from each other, slamming into opposite sides of the boat.

The book drops to the deck between them, and the environment settles back to its natural state.

In the glow of the full moon, Emma coughs and staggers to her feet, stumbling over to help Alyssa up.

“What was that?” Alyssa asks weakly, choking, her mouth still unbearably dry.

“I have no idea,” Emma rasps. She rubs a spot on her ribs that’s aching. “I’ve never had anything like that happen before.”

“I-”

There’s a piercing noise, so loud it’s agonizing, a sound like a scream that sends them both dropping to their knees with their hands over their ears. They make eye contact, terror reflected in both of their faces, and then they both slump on the deck unconscious.

* * *

Deep in the sands of a desert, hidden away, a tomb sits, sealed by a large stone.

A piercing scream fills the air, unheard in the emptiness.

The stone shifts.


	2. Chapter 2

** 2024 **

“Emma? Hey. Emma!”

She groans and blinks, her hand going to her thudding head and her eyes immediately squinting in the bright sunlight. “What?” she mumbles, her voice coming out low and raspy.

Barry stands over her, poking her knee with his foot. “Are you going to sleep forever, or are we going to start the day?”

Emma lifts her head and winces, every movement painful. She looks at Alyssa, also lying on the deck, starting to stir. “What happened?”

“You tell me. We dropped anchor and I went below deck to sleep, and when I came out here this morning the two of you were sleeping on the deck like a pair of drunken idiots. You’re lucky you didn’t get rained on.”

She runs a hand over her face and slowly sits up. “There was a noise. Something in my head. Sand and rock shifting out of place.”

Barry frowns, looking concerned, and sets a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever you drank last night – or whatever you were reading while you were drinking last night – maybe lay off it for a little while. It’s giving you nightmares.” He heads over to pull up the anchor.

Alyssa sits up, a dazed expression on her face. “You remember it too,” she murmurs.

Emma nods. “I didn’t dream it. Or imagine it.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think the pain is imaginary.”

Emma spots the notebook, sitting on the deck a few feet away. She pushes herself to her feet with a quiet groan and picks it up.

“What are you doing?” Alyssa asks, rubbing her forehead as if trying to rid herself of a headache.

“Whatever happened was right after we both touched this stupid thing.” Emma flips it open to its first page. “I want to know what’s-”

Alyssa frowns. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Emma stares down at the first entry and swallows. “Uhm. The first entry in here.”

“What about it?”

She clears her throat and reads. _“September 17, 1924.”_

“Yesterday was September 17,” Alyssa says.

“Uh huh.” Emma swallows again. _“I saw a woman in a bar, a soldier, a corporal disgraced for speaking crazy about an Egyptian tomb she swears she once saw. I find her more believable than I ever dreamed. She’s agreed to work with me and my brother, to locate this tomb and discover its secrets. I pray only that the trip is worth the effort it will require.”_

“It sounds like they started their expedition the same day we got that notebook, just a hundred years ago.” Alyssa pauses. “That’s so creepy.”

“Agreed. I don’t know whether that makes me more interested in going or less.”

“You’re joking, right? After what happened when we touched that thing, you still want to go poking around?”

Emma blinks at her. “Well, yeah. _Especially_ after all of that. You’re not curious?”

“You’re not terrified?”

“Of course I am. That just makes me more curious.”

Alyssa bites her lip. “Can I see it?”

“Sure.” Emma starts to hand it over, then stops. “Hold your hand out.”

Alyssa frowns, but complies. Emma drops the notebook into her hand.

“Just in case. I don’t really want to take another unintentional nap.”

“Good point.” Alyssa opens the notebook and flips through a few pages. _“September 21, 1924. My brother and I are taking a train with the corporal to a port where we can sail over to Egypt. She speaks of a tomb full of unimaginable horrors, lost deep in the desert. I’m not sure whether she’ll remember the whole path there, but we’ll find out once we’re closer.”_

“What are you thinking?”

“What we saw. The stone shifting away from the entrance of that cave or whatever it was in the midst of all that sand. Do you think… Do you think that’s…”

“What, the tomb? Like an actual image of the real thing? How could it be?”

Alyssa gives her a look. “Emma, I’m not exactly some big believer in magic here, but assuming that we weren’t both hallucinating…”

Emma thinks for a moment before looking over at Barry, who’s starting up the boat. “Hey, Barry?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“We need to go to Egypt. I’ll have more information on where we’re going once we get there.”

“Sure.”

“Oh, now you listen to my advice,” Alyssa mutters.

Emma snorts. “Are you complaining?”

“No,” she grumbles. Alyssa drops the notebook back in Emma’s hand and frowns when she notices her smirk. “What?”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you called me ‘Emma’ earlier, by the way.”

Alyssa sits down on one side of the boat and fidgets with her camera. “Don’t get used to it.”

Emma laughs and sits on the opposite side, opening the first page of the book again to start reading. “I wouldn’t dare dream of it.”

* * *

** 1924 **

They sit across from each other in the train as it moves through the countryside, the Brother asleep in the seat behind the Corporal.

“If this tomb was that horrible,” the Librarian says, flipping through her notes, “why are you so eager to go back?”

“I dropped a pen there and I really want it back,” the Corporal says dryly.

The Librarian sighs and looks up at her.

“It was a really good pen.”

“I’m sure.” She taps her pencil on her knee. “So, just to make sure I have this straight. You got separated from your unit, ended up at this tomb, walked a few feet inside, and saw things that you can’t even begin to describe to me. It was just bad.”

“Bad enough to panic someone who fought in a war. Does that add enough emphasis?”

“Not really. I’d rather know what I’m getting myself into.”

The Corporal laughs. “I’m not sure you do. You actually want to make this trip, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

The Librarian leans back in her seat. “My parents are historians. They have a name for themselves, and they think it makes them important. My whole life, all they’ve done is prioritize their work over their children while simultaneously lecturing my brother and me over not doing enough to impress them. All we’ve ever wanted was to find something to prove to them that we could find something so significant, so huge, that it couldn’t be ignored. That even they had to be impressed.”

The Corporal gives a thoughtful nod. “I can understand that. Though I have to say, putting yourself on a journey to a tomb of horrors in the middle of a desert is a hell of a way to prove yourself.”

“And what’s your reasoning for doing this? Don’t say pen, because I don’t believe you.”

She’s quiet for a moment, studying the woman across from her. “Honestly?” she murmurs. “I just… I want to know I’m really not crazy. I _know_ what I saw. I _know_ it. But with everyone telling me I’m insane, that I’m making it up, I…” The Corporal gives a soft laugh. “Well, I guess I want to prove myself, too.”

“As good of a reason as any to aim yourself towards potential death.”

“Nobody said anything about potential death,” the Brother says, standing up and leaning over the seat.

“You’re supposed to be asleep,” the Librarian replies. “Take a nap and don’t whine at me.”

“How am I supposed to sleep when you’re talking about how dangerous this is? That’s a huge red flag! I want money, not a casket!”

“Don’t worry,” the Corporal says casually. “If you die out there, you probably won’t get a casket, because it’s unlikely that anybody will find your body.”

He stares down at her. “You’re not a very comforting person.”

“I can accept that.”

He sits back down with a huff, and she looks across to the Librarian. She can’t help the smile the forms on her face as she watches the other woman try to stop herself from laughing.

* * *

When they get off the train, the Librarian pulls out a map and squints at it. “The port isn’t too far. I think we can-.”

“Excuse me.”

They look up, and they see a group of four people walking towards them, two men and two women.

“Can I help you?” the Corporal asks.

The man who spoke first, dark-haired and shorter than the other, stands in front of them while the other three people quietly surround them. “We were hired to take you across the sea for your journey. If you’ll come with us, everything will work out perfectly for your trip.”

“We didn’t hire anyone,” the Librarian says slowly.

“We know,” one of the women says.

The Corporal’s hand goes to one of the guns in her shoulder holster. “What’s going on here?”

Before she even gets a firm grip, the three people who aren’t the man immediately in front of her draw guns and aim them at her.

The man gives her an apologetic smile. “You didn’t hire us. Someone else did. Unfortunately, we’re going to need to escort you to their ship. The three of you have some treasure to find, after all, don’t you?”

The Corporal looks over at the Librarian, who’s staring at her with confused shock.

The moment is only broken when the Corporal is shoved from behind, a gun directing her in the direction of the port.

* * *

** 2024 **

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Alyssa says, sitting down next to Emma as the boat gets closer to Egyptian waters. “Who the hell are these guys?”

“The journal doesn’t give them identifiers yet,” Emma mutters. She skims the page again. “All of the history notes that I’ve read about this trip left this part out. I’ve never read anything about some members of the expedition being kidnapped or coerced or otherwise forced to participate. But then… I guess the first three were already _planning_ on going out there, so maybe over the years some parts of the tale got confused? I would imagine that with so few survivors it was hard to parse out exactly what happened.”

“How is that possible if there’s a notebook with all of the details?”

“This thing only surfaced fairly recently, and even then there’s not a lot of information. That’s why I was so determined to get my hands on this and read it for myself. This? This is a bombshell. It doesn’t change the tomb itself, but it could dramatically change us actually finding it.”

“If we actually _can_ with this,” Alyssa points out. “How can this librarian keep writing if she’s being held by somebody?”

“Maybe they want everything documented too?” Emma shrugs. “I’ll have to keep reading.”

Alyssa pats her shoulder. “You know, you’ve been reading a _lot._ Maybe you should get some rest? You haven’t been taking a break, and we’re not even actually traveling yet.”

Emma gives her a tired grin. “’We’, huh?”

“Okay, so I’m invested, shut up about it.”

“Never.” Emma rubs at her eyes. “I guess maybe I _should-”_

The boat crosses into Egyptian waters.

Emma drops the book as she and Alyssa both double over onto the deck, clutching at their ears as the same piercing sound from the other night screeches into their heads. The boat stops as quickly as it can, rocking gently in the calm seas, and Barry rushes over to them.

“What the hell is happening?”

“Don’t panic,” Emma gasps out. “You can’t… Just… Please…” She shudders as the sound causes a sharp pain that runs through her spine. “Barry, trust me, ple-”

The sound suddenly gets louder, even more intense, and everything goes dark.

* * *

In a room of stone, a skeletal form pulls itself out of a pile of dirt and rubble.

It turns and stares at a pale glow, deep within a pool of water.

A voice, rasping and cold and low, echoes, seemingly from within the form and from the room itself all at the same time.

_“Shattered to seal. But no longer. Those present must pay for their past.”_

The form shuffles to the pool and leans down, its decaying face closer to the glow. There’s a soft, hoarse laugh.

_“You will die before you reach this tomb.”_


	3. Chapter 3

** 2024 **

Emma flinches as she feels someone shake her awake.

“Oh, thank God,” Barry mutters. “Come on, kid. Wake up.”

“W’appen’d?”

“I think _you’re_ going to have to be the one to tell _me_ what happened.” Barry helps her sit up and leans her against the side of the boat. “If you hadn’t asked me not to panic – which didn’t _exactly_ work, by the way – I would’ve had to call somebody to get medical help for you both. If you didn’t start waking up soon, I still would have.”

Emma rubs at her head, still groggy. “Lys’a,” she mumbles. _“Lys’a!”_

Alyssa groans and blinks a few times before covering her eyes with her hands. “Oh, God.” She rolls over onto her side in an attempt to sit up and moans. “Don’t wanna.”

“What in God’s name is going on?” Barry asks, baffled.

Emma takes a moment, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. When she speaks again, her voice is hoarse, but firmer. “We don’t know what’s going on. Ever since we both touched that book at the same time, weird shit has been happening to us. Visions, or dreams, or _something._ Pain. This harsh sound that cuts through everything. I can hardly describe it.”

Barry gives her a worried look and presses his hand against her forehead. “Have you been drinking enough water?”

“It’s not heatstroke, Barry.” Emma swallows. “I swear to God. Something’s happening.”

He watches her for a long moment, and she can see her own fear reflected in his expression. “Okay,” he murmurs. “Okay, kiddo. What do you want to do?”

“I-I… I don’t…” She looks at Alyssa, who has pulled herself into a seated position. “I don’t know.”

“If we keep going, it might get worse,” Alyssa says. “Or, we might figure out how to solve it. I… I suppose there’s only one way to find out?”

Emma nods. “You have a point.”

“Is it really a good plan to risk hurting yourselves over this? If we just let it go, whatever it is might just stop.”

“Barry,” Emma says, her voice quiet. “If anything that’s in my head is true? I don’t think we have that option.”

* * *

“Have you found anything else yet?” Alyssa asks as she hands Emma a bottle of water and sits next to her.

Emma rubs her temple and shakes her head. “Not much. There’s notes in here that look like they were added in later,” she says. “Instead of Man #1 for the guy who led the group, Man #2 for the other, and then Woman #1 and Woman #2, she’s given them other identifiers. Mechanic, Fireman, Spy, Medic.”

“Does it say how she came to those titles?”

“Not yet, at least,” Emma says with a sigh.

Alyssa absentmindedly tucks a lock of hair behind Emma’s ear. “You’re still tired,” she murmurs. “Getting knocked out isn’t sleeping, you know.”

“I’m fine. I need to get as much information as I can.”

“You need to get rest when you can.”

“No. I got you involved in this without telling you the whole story. I need to get you out of it.”

“Emma.” Alyssa brushes her fingers through Emma’s hair. “Can you let me read for a few hours?”

For a few seconds, Emma’s eyes flutter closed, seemingly lost in Alyssa’s touch as her exhaustion pulls her in. After a moment, she snaps out of it and mumbles, “M’fine.”

“You’re not. Stop being such a stubborn ass.” Alyssa reaches for the book without thinking, and as soon as her fingers tough the paper, their vision goes black.

This time, however, neither of them passes out. They can still feel each other, can still smell saltwater, can still hear each other’s ragged, scared breathing.

Alyssa blinks, and her vision returns, but she’s not on the boat anymore. She’s standing in the same room of stone they saw before, shoulder-to-shoulder with Emma.

_“I won’t let you do this.”_

It’s Emma’s voice, Alyssa swears it is, but her lips aren’t moving and the words have an Irish accent that Emma doesn’t share.

_“You don’t have a say.”_

A shudder runs through Alyssa’s spine as she recognizes her _own_ voice, an echo just like the one that sounded like Emma, a sound that surrounds them so fully that it’s like it’s coming from within them both.

_“Please,”_ the phantom with Emma’s voice whispers. _“I love you.”_

Alyssa’s voice makes a choking sound like a sob. _“I love you, to-”_

The words are cut off by a hoarse laugh, the same one they heard from the skeletal form when they last passed out. Alyssa turns her head and tries to scream, the sound choking in her throat, when she sees its face mere inches from her own.

Its voice, the same cold, rasping voice, echoes like the ghosts of their own. _“Can you feel yourselves tearing apart? You were doomed before you were born.”_

Alyssa reaches out, desperately, for Emma, but she’s no longer there. She turns to look for her, and only finds the skeletal form back in her line of vision, and she still can’t scream.

_“It does not matter if you run. Or hide. Or come to me. Your fates are set.”_

It reaches out, and Alyssa suddenly can’t move as a cold hand lightly settles around her throat.

_“Your soul already belongs to me, Alyssa Greene.”_

An icy breath suddenly forces itself into Alyssa’s lungs, and the next moment that she blinks, she’s back on the boat, the book in her hands.

She gasps for air, her whole body trembling, shaking so bad that she lets the book fall onto the deck.

“Emma,” she whispers, her voice hoarse and cracking. She looks up, and her whole body goes as cold as the air in her throat.

The other woman is limp on the deck, one sleeve of her Henley torn and bloody.

“Oh, God.” Alyssa scrambles forward, one hand resting against Emma’s cheek as the other tries to carefully pull up Emma’s sleeve. “Emma. Emma, wake up.”

She doesn’t respond, and Alyssa turns her attention to her arm.

Her stomach drops as she realizes that something’s been carved into the skin of Emma’s forearm, just below her elbow – a symbol of a person kneeling with their arms tied behind their back.

There’s a whisper through her mind, the same voice she heard echoed in the stone room, Emma’s voice but not.

_Enemy._

* * *

** 1924 **

The Corporal watches for options out of their situation as they’re led onto a boat that immediately takes off from the dock. “What?” she asks the Mechanic dryly. “You don’t trust us not to run?”

He gives her a dry smile. “No. Not particularly.”

“Probably for the best.”

“Are you going to tell us who hired you now?” the Brother demands, folding his arms across his chest. “Are we supposed to guess? We’re a bit busy, and we’d really like to be on our way.”

“I know you’re busy,” a man’s voice says from a balcony above them. “Busy finding this tomb for me. After all, it’s only right that you hand the find over to the _real_ adventurer here.”

The Corporal follows the voice, looking at an older man standing with his hands on his hips, looking down at them with cold indifference. She feels the Librarian and the Brother tense beside her.

“I don’t know why I’m surprised,” the Librarian says, her voice soft. “Hello, Father.”


	4. Chapter 4

**1924**

“You’re out of your bloody mind if you think I’ll do  _ anything _ for you,” the Librarian snarls, leaning against a table across from her Father. “You narcissistic-”

“Mind your tongue, girl,” the Father interrupts. “You’re on  _ my _ ship.”

The Brother snorts out a laugh. “And whose fault is that? You’re the one who kidnapped us. We were perfectly fine on our own.”

“Fine with no funding and no concept of what adventuring really means? You children would never get anywhere without my help.”

“Let us back off the ship and find out old man. I’m done with this.” The Librarian turns to leave the room, but before she reaches the door, her Father walks around the table and sets his hand on the back of her neck, squeezing just enough to stop her in her tracks.

“That soldier out there, I need her knowledge to get us where we’re going,” he says, his voice soft and dangerous. “And you, well, you’re a disappointment, but you’ve studied enough that I know you’ll be of some use when we get where we’re going. But  _ him?” _ The Father points at the Brother. “I have no use for him. So be a good girl and do as you’re told, or your brother will be in the river with the crocodiles.”

The Librarian’s jaw tenses. “Fine.”

* * *

“You don’t need to do this,” the Brother says as they leave their Father’s office. “You don’t need to protect me.”

“You can be mad about it if you want to be. I’m going to do it anyway.” The Librarian sighs. “You’re all I have left, brother. Well.” She gives a soft laugh. “I guess you and that corporal I somehow got into this mess.”

He sets a hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. You know that, right?”

“Perhaps. But it was my decision. That’s on me whether it’s my  _ fault _ or not.”

* * *

**2024**

Emma wakes to a searing pain in her arm.

“Stay still.”

She lifts her head slightly, looking down at Alyssa as she uses the boat’s first aid kit to clean what looks like a gash in her left forearm. “What happened?”

“We passed out again,” Alyssa says softly. “When I woke up you were still out and you had a hieroglyph carved into you.”

“Oh.” Emma sets her head back down. “So we really are officially fucked, huh?”

Alyssa laughs like she can’t help herself. “Yeah, I guess we are.” She lets go of Emma’s arm. “Do you want to see what this is before I wrap it?”

Emma raises her arm carefully and looks at the symbol in her skin. “Enemy,” she murmurs.

“What?” Alyssa asks sharply.

“It means ‘enemy’.”

“I heard that when I first saw it on you. The voice, the one that was yours but not quite, I could hear it in my head whispering that word to me.”

Emma stares at it for a long moment, then lowers her arm again. “Can you cover it?”

“Yeah.” Alyssa starts to wrap it in a bandage. “Are you okay?”

“I shouldn’t have taken that book.”

Alyssa pauses. “It’s like you said. You retrieve artifacts. You couldn’t have known what this one would become.”

“It was strange. As soon as I read about the 1924 expedition, it was like I  _ needed _ to find the notebook. I  _ needed _ to chase it. I’ve never felt that way about an artifact before. Maybe I should’ve known it was too good to be true.”

“Maybe. Maybe we would’ve ended up here anyway. I felt that same need about coming out here and interviewing you.” Alyssa runs a hand through her hair. “I think whatever this is would’ve found us even if we hadn’t found it.”

“You  _ needed _ to interview me, huh? Are you sure it was some curse and not because you saw what I look like?”

“Cocky bastard,” Alyssa mutters.

Emma grins. “Usually, yeah.” She sits up and sets a hand on Alyssa’s knee. “You can still get out of this, Lys. We can drop you off and you can catch a plane back home and I’ll just continue on by myself. If this notebook is going to get one of us killed, it might as well be me.”

“No. I’m in this. I have a feeling that even if I try to leave, it’ll find me. I’d rather confront it head-on, with you.”

They’re silent, staring at each other, and Emma starts to slowly lean in towards her.

“We’re almost at the shore,” Barry calls down into the boat to them.

Emma jerks away and looks towards the stairs. “We’ll be up in a second!”

“Oh, good, you’re awake. I can yell at you.”

“Great,” Emma mutters under her breath. She grins as she catches a small smile on Alyssa’s face, then she stands and climbs back up onto the deck.

* * *

**1924**

The Librarian sits down next to the Colonel on the top deck of the boat, looking out at the setting sun.

“What do you want to do?” the Colonel asks.

“We can’t trust him. I’m telling you that much right now.” The Librarian sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “I don’t think we have any choice but to go with his plan.”

“I could lead them out to the middle of the desert instead of to the tomb, but then I’d just be screwing us over, too.”

“Give him what he wants. For now, give him what he wants. Maybe we can make something of it later.”

The Corporal takes the Librarian’s hand and squeezes it. “Are you okay?”

“Sure. My ambitious asshole of a father kidnapped us so that he could usurp our journey to a dangerous mythical tomb. I’m doing great.”

The Corporal raises an eyebrow.

The Librarian sighs. “I know. I know. I really am doing okay. It helps knowing that I have somebody who can have my back.”

“Your brother doesn’t really seem like the type.”

“I meant  _ you, _ Corporal.”

“I know.” The Corporal grins. “And I will, you know. I’ll have your back. No matter what.”

“I’ll have yours, too. I know it might not mean much coming from a librarian, but… I’ll try my best.”

“It means a lot.” The Corporal squeezes her hand again. “Trust me. Where we’re going, it means everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's spooky season again.


	5. Chapter 5

**2024**

“Strange,” Emma murmurs as she sits with Barry and Alyssa at an outdoor restaurant table. “There’s a gap in time in this journal.”

“What do you mean?” Alyssa asks.

“They’re on the boat agreeing to figure the situation out…” Emma flips to the next page. “And then the next entry they’re moving through the desert. It doesn’t look like there’s anything missing in between. Maybe the librarian just couldn’t write again until this point.”

Barry eats a spoonful of his soop. “If they’re already in the sand, do we know how to pick up their trail?”

“I’m not sure,” Emma mutters. She flips between the two pages again. “I need to think.”

“Well, we need to get supplies anyway, so let’s get rooms in a hotel and take a few days to work on it.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure.”

Alyssa reaches across the table, setting her hand on top of Emma’s. “Are you okay?” she asks softly.

Emma meets her gaze and smiles. “Yeah. Of course I am.”

* * *

**1924**

The Librarian slips in the sand, starting to slide back down the dune until the Corporal reaches out and grabs her hand. She pulls her back up to the top and takes a bandana from around her neck, using it to wipe some of the sweat and sand from the Librarian’s brow.

“You’re tired,” the Corporal whispers. “You should stop for a minute.”

“I can’t. We can’t fall behind the others, and you know they won’t stop for me.” She gives a strained smile. “I’m fine, Corporal. I-”

_ “Keep moving!” _ the Father yells back at them from the bottom of the other side of the dune, glaring up at them before pushing the Brother forward to continue along their path.

“One bullet,” the Corporal mutters under her breath. “Give me a gun and  _ one bullet…” _

The Librarian laughs.

* * *

They camp in the sand, resting before they continue their journey deeper into the desert.

As the Corporal sits in front of the fire, the Librarian lies next to her, her head resting in the Corporal’s lap.

Across from them, the Spy shifts uneasily. “You’ve really been there? This tomb?”

“I have,” the Corporal says quietly.

“It’s not  _ really _ cursed, is it?”

The Corporal takes in a long, slow breath. “All I can really say to that is that I was never afraid of anything until I stepped into that place.”

The Spy is silent for a moment. “You know, during the war, there were always times I felt uneasy. Nervous of the next step I was going to take. They didn’t suspect women much, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t find me out. The further and further we get out here, the more of those same nerves I feel. Like I might have made a mistake.”

Absentmindedly, the Corporal brushes her fingers through the Librarian’s hair. “I can’t say you’re wrong about that.”

* * *

**2024**

Alyssa sits in her hotel room, massaging her temples, trying to process her previous few days. She gets up when she hears a soft knock on her door, unsurprised to find Emma in the hallway. “Can’t sleep?”

Emma just shakes her head.

“Me neither, as you can see. Come in.”

“I was hoping I wasn’t disturbing you,” Emma says with a sigh. She steps into the room, running a hand through her hair.

As Alyssa shuts the door behind her, she says, “Are you sure you’re okay, Emma? You look exhausted.”

“That’s always something a girl wants to hear,” Emma says with a thin smile.

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah. And you know what I feel like.”

Alyssa pauses before sighing and nodding. “I feel like whatever is coming is something we’re not meant to survive.”

“That’s the feeling.”

“I don’t know how to fix it.”

“Neither do I.” Emma steps closer, setting her hands lightly on Alyssa’s arms. “I know you won’t let me take the blame for getting you here, but I’m sorry anyway. I should’ve waited to open that journal. I should’ve been more careful. I was stupid, and I wanted to show off to you, and now we’re here.”

“Now we’re here,” Alyssa murmurs. “Probably going to die within the next week. Willing heading into the desert after a cursed tomb.”

“Sounds right.”

“Maybe…” She shakes her head. “No, it’s stupid.”

Emma stares at her, the grip on her arms tightening just slightly. “What’s stupid?”

Alyssa shrugs and gives a small, hesitant grin. “I mean, we’re awake anyway. If this is going to be our last quiet moment together before we head off into doom, maybe we make the most of it.”

Emma laughs. “Maybe we should.”

They stare at each other for a moment, until Alyssa grips the front of Emma’s henley and pulls her into a kiss. She pushes Emma backwards, nearly stumbling over each other’s feet, until they trip onto the bed and separate, breathless.

“You’re sure about this?” Emma asks gently, brushing a stray strand of hair behind Alyssa’s ear.

“Yes,” Alyssa whispers.

“So am I.” Emma cups Alyssa’s face in her hands and, with a grin, pulls her down to kiss her again.

* * *

**1924**

“Stop.”

“You don’t get to tell me to stop,” the Father growls.

The Corporal rolls her eyes. “Then  _ don’t _ get to the tomb. See if I care.”

“We’re close?” the Librarian asks, coming to a stop next to her.

The Corporal hands her binoculars and points at the spot in the horizon just beneath the setting sun, less than a mile away. “We’re  _ there.” _

Camouflaged between two sand dunes, with a large boulder above a deep cave-like entrance, just barely visible under the glare of the sun, the group arrives at their destination.

“Finally!” the Father yells, turning to give instructions to his crew.

“We’re here,” the Librarian says softly, foreboding settling in her stomach.

The Corporal sets a hand on her shoulder and echoes in a whisper, “We’re here.”


	6. Chapter 6

**2024**

Alyssa stretches as she gets out of bed, grabbing the Henley that Emma was wearing the night before and pulling it over her head on her way to the bathroom.

She turns on the water and picks up her toothbrush, but when she looks up into the mirror, she doesn’t see her own reflection.

Instead, she sees the skeletal face of her nightmares, daymares, premonitions, staring back at her.

_ “You will pay the debt you owe.” _

Alyssa drops her toothbrush and turns to hurry back into the bedroom, but she’s suddenly surrounded by darkness. She stumbles forward, looking for an escape, until a scream that sounds both far in the distance and right in her very heart rings through the shadows.

“Emma,” Alyssa says, her voice barely working above a rasp.  _ “Emma!” _

Another step, and she’s out of the darkness as quickly as she entered it, tripping over the bed where Emma is just starting to wake.

The other woman is panting and sweating, fear in her eyes as she stares up at the ceiling, and when Alyssa sets a hand on her shoulder she jerks away in terror.

“Em, it’s me. It’s just me.”

Emma lets out a shaky breath and closes her eyes. “Did you…”

“I saw him in the mirror when I went to brush my teeth.”

“He was right  _ here, _ I… God, my arm is killing me.”

Alyssa grabs Emma’s wrist and turns it over, wincing when she sees fresh blood through the bandage she had applied the day before. “I think the bastard opened the hieroglyph again.”

“If he doesn’t like me, he can just say it instead of spelling it out all the time,” Emma mutters.

“I’ll make sure to tell him that if I see him again.” Alyssa brushes Emma’s hair off her forehead and leans down to kiss her softly. “Are you okay?”

Emma gives her a gentle look. “I’ll be fine. Are you hurt?”

“No. But you are, so let me go get a fresh bandage and wrap that up again.”

“Not the best morning to have after such a great night,” Emma says mildly.

“True.” Alyssa grabs their first aid box from her bag and sits down next to Emma on the bed. “But it  _ was _ a really good night regardless.”

Emma grins. “Yeah?”

“Don’t let it go to your head, Nolan.”

“Maybe it’s too late for that.”

Alyssa shakes her head slowly, trying not to smile. “Lucky me.”

* * *

**1924**

The Librarian crouches down and studies the doorway of the tomb as her Father barrels past her and walks right inside. “You shouldn’t do that,” she says softly. “This place could be dangerous.”

The Father scoffs. “You really do believe the superstitions?” He points at the Corporal. “You believe  _ her _ nonsense? You’re an even bigger failure than I thought.”

“She does have a point though, sir,” the Fireman says after exchanging a nervous glance with the Mechanic.

“This place is so old it might not be stable,” the Mechanic adds.

“You two are only here for muscle and to tend to the vehicles. You’re not structural engineers, and you’re not scientists. I’m not taking archaeology advice from you. If you’re going to be cowards, stay out here and be cowards, but the only people who are being paid are the ones who follow me.”

His other few employees immediately head inside, while the Mechanic, Fireman, Spy, and Medic all hesitate.

The Medic looks at the Corporal. “Have you been inside?”

“A few feet. But I’ve seen what I needed to see. It’s real. I don’t need to go further, and you shouldn’t, either. Money be damned.”

“You’re going inside, too, Corporal,” the Father says. “I need someone to walk in front of us. You know. Just in case.”

The Corporal snorts. “And why exactly should I volunteer to do that?”

“It’s either you or my son. Which would you prefer?”

The Corporal grits her teeth and steps forward, stopping only when the Librarian stands and grabs her hand.

“Be careful,” the Librarian murmurs.

“I will.” The Corporal takes in a deep breath, braces herself, and steps into the tomb.

* * *

**2024**

“Emma, what are you doing?” Alyssa asks, watching Emma grab items hap-hazardly and toss them into a backpack.

“I saw the direction, Alyssa. I don’t know if it was courtesy of that… that  _ thing _ or the voices we heard that sounded like ours, but I saw the path to take to get to the tomb. I’m going. Alone.”

“Like hell you are.”

“Barry is the closest thing I have to a father. I’m not getting him killed because of some curse I brought on my own stupid head. And you… you’re just… you don’t need to die, Lys.”

“I’d quite like not to, but you’re not sidelining me just to be a noble moron. I meant what I said. I’m in this. With you. If you want to leave Barry out of it, then okay. We’ll leave, just the two of us. But don’t you dare treat me like some damsel you need to protect.”

Emma’s jaw twitches. “That’s not what I’m trying to do.”

“Maybe it’s not what you’re  _ trying _ to do, but it’s sure what it  _ sounds _ like you’re doing.” Alyssa prods her finger against the center of Emma’s chest. “You’re not the boss of me.”

“I think that’s been established,” Emma says dryly. Alyssa blushes, then Emma continues, “Okay. You win. And you’re right. You already made the call, and it’s your decision. We’re partners in this.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. The voices we heard, the ones that sounded like… Well, like us. Do you… Do you think they could’ve been the voices of the corporal and the librarian?”

Emma laughs. “What, like that they’re us? Or we’re them?”

Alyssa just stares at her.

“I don’t see how. I mean, what would the odds of that be? That we’d be together on the same boat on the same day I found that journal?”

“You said yourself that you were drawn to that book, and I was drawn to you.” Alyssa shrugs. “I mean, if cursed tombs and hauntings are real…”

Emma swallows. “I think you should go back to your room and pack up your things. I’ll leave a note for Barry. We should get moving.”

Alyssa gives a slow nod. “Okay. Wait for me.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

* * *

**1924**

“It feels wrong,” the Corporal says as they walk down the thin tunnel of the tomb, ducking under cobwebs and old torches. “It’s creepy. But as you can see, there’s nothing here for you. So can we all just leave now?”

“You have no idea what this place can do, do you?” The Father sighs and shakes his head, studying the ancient writing on the wall next to him. “This tomb can grant endless life. All it requires is the sacrifice of a true enemy.”

“None of us are here for that,” the Spy says. “We’re here to look for a tomb full of treasure. For money.”

“No, that’s what drew you here. It’s what draws all fools like you here. The true adventurer doesn’t seek out riches as simple as that.” The Father presses down on one of the symbols, and part of the floor drops out from underneath them, sending the Mechanic and some of the other employees plummeting into seemingly endless darkness.

The Librarian grabs her Brother and pulls him away from the edge before giving their Father a horrified look. “What do you think you’re  _ doing?” _

The Father points to the wall he pressed on, now lowering and opening to a new passage as their previous path becomes blocked by the gaps. “Finding the way.” He points down at the ground, at the gold tiles they’re standing on that don’t match the gray ones they had been walking on. “If you don’t pay attention to where you’re going, you don’t deserve to continue on with us.”

“But that’s-”

“Keep moving,” he interrupts, turning his back on his stunned group as he heads deeper into the tomb.


	7. Chapter 7

**1924**

“Father, please, this is madness,” the Librarian says as she follows him further into the tomb.

“Oh? What were you going to do when you got here, have a nice campfire outside and then leave?”

The Librarian pauses. “I don’t know,” she admits softly. “But I certainly wouldn’t force people to follow me, and I certainly wouldn’t rush through traps that will get other people killed. That spike room-”

“I know you wouldn’t do what I’m doing. You’re too weak to do what’s necessary to find the true value in an adventure.” The Father stops in front of a large circular door and reads the symbols written on it. “Yes,” he whispers. “I thought so.”

He grabs a sphere on the wall and pulls, and a thin cylinder slides out with a sharp design at the bottom.

“What is that?” the Corporal asks.

_ “To designate an enemy.” _ The Father grabs the Librarian by the wrist and yanks her forward, using the dull end of the cylinder to push up her sleeve.

“Let go of her!” The Corporal takes a step forward, but the Brother puts an arm out to hold her back.

“Father,” he says, voice soft and desperate. _ “Please. _ Why are you doing this?”

“Your mother and I found a huge discovery a few years ago, and do you know what she did? She donated it to a museum. She _ donated _ riches that could have solidified our careers for the rest of our lives. I decided right then that I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I’d find a treasure of my own, _ all _ my own, one that she couldn’t take away from me. And this? This is going to be it.” The Father turns the cylinder over to the sharp side and stabs it into the Librarian’s left forearm.

The Librarian makes a quick sound of pain and pulls away from him, stumbling backwards into the Corporal. The Corporal gently takes her arm and looks at the cut, then looks up, startled. “What is this?”

The Librarian looks down at her own arm, at the hieroglyph visible through the blood. “Enemy,” she mutters through clenched teeth. “It means enemy.”

As the Corporal takes off her bandana and ties it around the Librarian’s arm, the Father grins. “That’s right. I chose you.” He pushes open the door, revealing a room of stone and a deep pool of water. “Now, sadly, I’m going to have to kill you.”

* * *

**2024**

Alyssa dozes in the passenger seat as Emma drives her rented Jeep into the desert. Emma rubs at her eyes, focused on the glow of the headlights on the sand.

There’s something in the back of her head, a whisper of that voice that’s nearly her own but accented, and she can’t quite find it. A warning, or a plea, she doesn’t know. All she knows is that she’s driving in the direction she needs to drive, for better or for worse.

She stops the Jeep when she sees a large structure looming ahead, and she picks up her binoculars from her bag in the backseat to get a better look.

A large boulder rolled to the side of a cave-like entrance between two sand dunes.

“Oh, God,” Emma whispers.

A piercing shriek shatters through her ears and the cut on her arm begins to burn. She drops the binoculars and puts her hands on her head, slamming her foot down even harder on the break as her whole body shakes from the shock.

“Emma?” Alyssa’s voice comes, sudden and confused as she wakes.

She can’t answer as she sinks into the darkness, but the world doesn’t stay empty for long as she finds herself standing in the stone room again, the voices whispering around her.

_ “Oh God, what are you doing?” _ her own near-voice says.

A man’s voice laughs. _ “By stepping into this pool, I will claim the treasure of this tomb. Then, once you’re dead, I’ll-” _ His words choke off in a scream of agony.

_ “Father!” _

_ “Don’t touch him!” _ the voice like Alyssa’s yells. _ “Jesus Christ, what’s happening to him?” _

Emma’s eyes snap open, and Alyssa’s real voice says, “Honey, breathe. Breathe.”

She feels Alyssa’s fingers gently stroke down the back of her neck as she rests her head forward against the steering wheel. “Oh, God,” Emma groans.

“What did you see?”

“There wasn’t much to see. Just that stone room again. But I heard something. I think the father did something wrong with his plan. I think he might’ve been killed.”

“If he was killed, what happened to the rest of them?”

“I’m not sure.” Emma takes in a breath and opens to the last page of the journal to read. _ “November 19, 1924. The spy and the medic were the only two of my father’s adventuring party left, so I asked them to ensure my brother gets out safely. They promised he would. I’m not sure why I trust them, but I feel like I can ask that of them. At the very least, now that we’re the only ones left, I think I can ask that of them. I think this will be the final time I write. I don’t think there’s anything else left to say.” _

“That’s… promising,” Alyssa says slowly.

“I don’t get it.” Emma rereads the page silently. “So three people made it out. From the sounds of things, I’m going to hazard a guess that they didn’t have the amnesia they claimed, they just were too traumatized by what they had been through to talk about it. Or, you know, they knew regular people would think they were crazy. Regardless, three people got out. But why didn’t the librarian? And what happened to the corporal?”

“As much as I hate to say it, I think the only way we’ll know is by going in there.” Alyssa points at the tomb.

Emma sighs. “Yeah.”

* * *

When they walk into the tomb, they find that most of it is rubble.

“The traps are all gone,” Emma says quietly. “It’s like there was a cave-in.”

She helps Alyssa over the rocks and down further into the darkness, lit by the flashlights clipped onto the straps of their backpacks.

“This is the stone room.”

Emma turns to Alyssa. “What?”

“Look at it. It’s hard to see because the pillars are down, the walls that would’ve been the hallways around it have collapsed, the pool of water has dried up, but look at it. It’s the stone room.”

Emma looks around the room and shakes her head slowly. “I don’t get it. What have we been seeing, then? The past?”

Alyssa raises an eyebrow. “Is that any weirder than seeing rooms you’ve never been to in the present?”

“True.”

“Is it cold in here?” Alyssa asks. She rubs her head. “Emma. Emma, I’m hearing that screech again.”

It takes a moment, then it registers for Emma as well, though the sound is lower than normal, a quiet whisper that seems to surround them.

“Yeah,” Emma mutters, turning as she instinctively sets her hand on top of the pistol on her hip. “I hear it too.”

_ “You owe me my eternity.” _ The voice of the skeletal figure fills the room. _ “You cannot escape it.” _

Emma suddenly feels weak, her knees collapsing under her, and Alyssa grips her shoulder.

_ “Wait… Why aren’t you whole?” _

The voice pauses, then laughs softly.

_ “Of course… your souls shattered and had to be put back together. But some of the pieces got mixed up, didn’t they? Librarian turned adventurer, soldier turned researcher. You’re still you, but a few shards ended up in the wrong bodies. No matter.” _

“What…” Emma swallows. “What are you saying?”

From the wreckage beyond the pool, a skeletal figure stumbles out towards them, decayed and weak. _ “You owe me your life, Daughter,” _ he hisses. _ “It’s time to be the sacrificed enemy I rightfully chose all those years ago.” _


	8. Chapter 8

**2024**

“Jesus,” Emma whispers. “You’re her father. The librarian’s.”

_ “I am much more than that now. I am eternal. And once I take your souls, I will be whole again, able to finally leave this tomb.” _

Emma pushes herself to her feet, nudging Alyssa back towards the entrance. “Go.”

“What?”

“Alyssa,  _ go!” _ As she scrambles back towards the way they had come in, Emma takes her handgun off of her belt and aims it at the skeletal figure. “If you’re taking anyone, you’re taking me. Not her. And you’re not getting me without a fight.”

The raspy voice laughs softly.  _ “You cannot stop what must happen. She has a piece of your soul. I need you  _ both.”

The creature steps forward, and the carving in Emma’s arm starts to burn.

“Emma!” Alyssa appears back at her shoulder, gripping her shirt. “We can’t get out.”

“What?” Emma glances at her. “What do you mean?”

“The boulder is back in front of the entrance. I don’t think we can move it.”

Emma swallows and looks back at the skeleton. She empties her gun into it, making it stumble backwards.

“Jesus!” Alyssa flinches away. “What are you-”

“Run.” Emma grabs her hand and pulls her towards a small gap in the rocks as the creature roars behind them.

* * *

They stop at a dead end, and Emma takes a new magazine out of her pocket to reload her gun.

“Do you have a better plan than shooting an immortal monster over and over?” Alyssa asks, looking around the small stone area they’re stuck in.

“No.” Emma lifts her gun in her shaky left hand, aiming down the gap they had come through. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Neither do I.” Alyssa pulls the journal out of Emma’s back pocket and flips through it.

“I should’ve told you to stay outside while I checked to see if it was safe,” Emma mutters. “Stupid.”

“You’re not stupid,” Alyssa says softly. “This isn’t your fault.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but-”

Alyssa turns Emma’s head and kisses her.

The notebook falls to the floor between them, the world goes dark, and they both collapse.

* * *

**1924**

“What are you doing here?” the Corporal demands as the Librarian follows her into the smaller hallway, writing in her journal.

“Did you think you were going to run off by yourself and I would let you? I’m the one who got you to come back here, so if you’re doing something stupid you’re not doing it alone.” The Librarian looks up at the hieroglyphs on the wall, tucking her book into her back pocket. “I tried to get to the cylinder, but it’s in the middle of the pool. I can’t get to it.”

“I saw a message back there. Your father can’t complete the process unless he kills you with that thing. You need to get out of here.”

“Well, it’s too late for that, because I already sent the others out of here. They’ll have to lock us in to do it.”

The Corporal’s teeth clench. “You’re stubborn.”

The Librarian snorts. “You already knew that.”

“True.” The Corporal runs her fingers along the wall. “There doesn’t seem to be a way to kill him. But I think I can stop him from leaving. On this wall it speaks of another curse of this tomb. A way to destroy this place and the pool that let him do this to begin with.”

“What type of curse?”

The Corporal swallows and points at a square hole in the wall. “Choosing to sacrifice myself to the tomb.”

The Librarian shakes her head. “No. No way.”

“I don’t have a better plan. This place has to go.”

“I won’t let you do this.”

“You don’t have a say.”

_ “Please.” _ The Librarian’s voice cracks. “I-I love you.”

The Corporal makes a noise, half-laugh, half-sob. “I love you, too,” she whispers as she sticks her arm into the wall. Her knees almost buckle, teeth gritted in pain.

The Librarian steps up close to her and slides her own arm in next to the Corporal’s. Immediately, her muscles spasm, pain shattering down her spine and nearly dropping her to the ground.

“What are you doing?” The Corporal shoves at her with her free hand. “What are you  _ doing?” _

“I told you. I’m not letting you do this alone.”

Weight presses down on their wrists, trapping them as the stone around them begins to shake.

“So,” the Librarian asks breathlessly. “What happens now?”

The Corporal looks over her shoulder as the tunnel they had walked through collapses. “I think that’s our answer.”

“Do you think anybody else will ever find this place?”

“I don’t know. I hope not.”

Sharp pains in their chests drop them both to their knees, their arms still awkwardly trapped in the stone.

The Corporal reaches up with her free hand, cupping the Librarian’s jaw and brushing her thumb against her cheek. “Together, huh?” she whispers.

The Librarian nods with a strained smile. “Together.”

The Corporal kisses her, then the pain in their chests gets stronger, and their world goes dark.

* * *

**2024**

“Alyssa, wake up. Come on. You’re okay. Come on.”

Alyssa groans and sits up slowly, Emma kneeling behind her as support. “You saw all of that too, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Emma says softly.

“Is this how it’s always meant to end, then? The two of us finding each other over and over again, only to die in this tomb?”

Emma is silent for a long moment. “No.” She kisses Alyssa on the cheek and hands her her gun. “You know how to use that?”

“Point it and shoot it.”

“Preferably not at me. Exactly. Stay here.”

Alyssa looks up sharply. “No way.”

Emma gives her an exasperated look. “Lys.”

“Don’t ‘Lys’ me. Wherever you’re going, I’m going.”

Emma takes in a breath. “Okay. Follow me. But y’know. Don’t. Shoot me.”

Alyssa playfully shoves her. “Just do whatever stupid idea you’re going to do, Nolan.”

“Will do!” Emma turns and heads back to the large stone room.

* * *

The skeletal figure laughs as they return.  _ “I knew you had nowhere to go but back to me.” _

“Yeah, yeah.” Emma looks at Alyssa. “Shoot him.”

“He’s  _ immortal,” _ Alyssa replies.

“I know that. Just… distract him for a bit, would you?”

Alyssa rolls her eyes and lifts the gun, shooting towards the creature.

Emma runs past it as it recoils from the shot, sliding onto the ground in the empty pool. She looks around, searching, then spots a crack in the floor. “Shit,” she mumbles.

She goes over to it and looks down, spotting a glittering cylinder with a sphere on one end and a sharp point on the other, stuck on a rock a few feet below. She lays down and reaches into the crevice, her fingers brushing against the metal.

Alyssa fires again, hitting the creature in the head this time, blowing off its jaw. It roars and starts towards her, beginning to back her up towards the wall. “Emma, whatever you’re going to do, hurry up!”

Emma presses herself against the rock as hard as she can, her ribs and shoulder aching, finally getting a grip on the cylinder. She stands, spinning it in her hand so the sharp end is pointing outward, then walks towards the creature. “Hey, jackass! Get away from her!”

The skeletal figure turns back to her and laughs.  _ “The object of your doom. You retrieved your own fall. Give it to me, girl.” _

“You want it? You can have it.” She stabs the sharp point of the cylinder up into the creature’s chest.

_ “You think that wil- What’s happening?” _ The skeletal figure stares at its hand as it starts to crumble.  _ “No! What’s happening?!” _

“Looks like failure to me.” Emma pulls the cylinder out of its chest as its ribcage starts to collapse and pushes up her sleeve. She pulls down the bandage on her arm, watching as the carved symbol vanishes.

_ “No, I am endless! I am immortal! I-” _

“Didn’t read the fine print.” Emma tosses the cylinder back into the crevice. “That weapon could give you what you wanted, but it could take it away, too. All they needed was to get the water out of the pool to get it back. You had a hundred years of your  _ ‘endless life’ _ . They waited a hundred years to get rid of you.”

Alyssa walks over to stand next to her as the creature collapses further. “The librarian and the corporal send their regards.”

The last remaining hand reaches out for her, an angry snarl echoing around them, then the creature fully disintegrates into dust.

Emma kicks the mound, scattering it across the room.

“At least we don’t need to listen to his voice anymore while we’re stuck in here,” Alyssa jokes, resting her head on Emma’s shoulder.

“Actually, we  _ might _ not have to worry about that anymore.” Emma takes her gun back from Alyssa and holsters it, then takes her by the hand and leads her back up towards the entrance.

The boulder by the entrance has moved again, leaving an opening for them to walk through.

“Let’s go before it changes its mind.”

Emma snorts out a laugh. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

They run out of the tomb and climb into the Jeep, and when they look back up, the boulder has shifted back into place.

Alyssa pats at her pockets. “Oh,” she says softly. “I dropped the journal when we passed out.” She looks up at the tomb. “It’s still in there.”

Emma is quiet for a long moment before she responds. “It’s where it belongs.”

“I know. I just… I can’t help but wish there was something we could do for them. I hate that they’ll always be forgotten.”

“Not by us, at least.”

Alyssa’s brow furrows. “How did that notebook get out of there to begin with? It was still with the librarian in that flashback we saw.”

“We share souls because we’re the reincarnations of two people who sacrificed themselves to an ancient tomb a hundred years ago, and  _ that’s _ the part that’s hard for you to understand?”

“Oh, shut up,” Alyssa mutters.

Emma grins. “Never.” She pulls Alyssa towards her and kisses her. “Come on. Let’s get away from this place.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Emma turns the Jeep around and drives back towards town, the tomb slowly disappearing behind them.


End file.
